Time Running Out for Left Parties

The vote last month in North Rhine Westfalia was a clear expression of dissatisfaction with the Red-Green reform agenda.  In theory, the angry SPD voters would be attracted to a left-wing alternative that would work to protect the social programs they have enjoyed for decades.  But where can they turn?  The Greens are tainted by their complicity in Hartz IV; attempts now by Bärbel Höhn to now suddenly position the Greens as the "Party of Social Justice" ring hollow and only serve to alienate its coalition partner.  The PDS will keep its base voters in eastern Germany and will return to  the Bundestag, but it is viewed in the west as a "foreign party ".  The PDS party leader Gregor Gysi – one the more dynamic German politicians – admits as much:

"Ich mache mir keine Illusionen mehr: Absehbar
werden wir im Westen keine ausreichende Bedeutung haben. Für die PDS
sind die Zeiten immer schwierig. Sie ist immer noch nicht im Westen
angekommen. Wir bräuchten dort vier, fünf Prozent, um gegen den
Neoliberalismus wirklich etwas erreichen zu können."

The other alternative is the WASG, a party of disgruntled labor activists and intellectuals who have left the SPD.  This party is too young and unknown to achieve much on its own by September: it got less than 2% of the votes in NRW.  Theoretically, a combination of PDS/WASG could achieve double digits in the election by tapping into the deep frustrations of the voters.  Problem is, they are quickly running out of time to launch an effective campaign.  Their only hope is if Oskar LaFontaine
agrees to lead the combined party (under a new name – yet to be determined).  There is no doubt that Lafontaine could take votes away from Red-Green in the west; it will be up to Gysi to keep the PDS base in line to preserve the PDS franchise in the east.